(The following story by Matt Egan appeared on the Fox Business website on May 15, 2009.)
NEW YORK — As the markets enjoyed one of their biggest rallies from a bear market ever, billionaire investor Warren Buffett snapped up shares of Wells Fargo (WFC: 24.88, 0, 0%) and U.S. Bancorp (USB: 17.7, 0, 0%), as well as railroad companies Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI: 67.19, 0, 0%) and Union Pacific (UNP: 46.51, 0, 0%), according to new regulatory filings.
Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), Buffett’s holding company, also said Friday in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing it upped its stake in health-care company Johnson & Johnson (JNJ: 55.33, 0, 0%) by 3.9 million shares.
Buffett bought 12 million shares of Wells Fargo, bringing his stake to 307.4 million shares. He also purchased 1.5 million shares of U.S. Bancorp as of March 31.
At the same time, Berkshire said it no longer holds a stake in manufacturer Ingersoll-Rand (IR: 20.55, 0, 0%) and storage servicing company Iron Mountain (IRM: 26.92, 0, 0%).
Buffett also sold shares of energy giant ConocoPhillips (COP: 43.94, 0, 0%), Constellation Energy Group (CEG: 24.72, 0, 0%), United Health (UNH: 27.47, 0, 0%) and used-car retailer CarMax (KMX: 10.51, 0, 0%).